OCTOBER  2012

               October 2012                     

• Pillar Boxes and Trains, The Debden Treasure Trove - Brian Livingstone recently joined a guided tour of the British Postal Museum & Archive's Debden Store and describes some of the large-size treasures to be found there.
  
  

• "Government chit-chits" or a philatelist in Nepal - Keith Tranmer recalls a few days spent productively in Kathmandu.
    

• Did you spot the Special Cancel? - A report from Brian Livingstone on Olympex 2012 - Collecting the Olympic Games, the recent exhibition at the British Library.
  
  

• A Short History of Tibetan Postage stamps - commemorating their 100th Anniversary - Briti Deb takes us through 100 years of Tibetan postal history.
  
  

• Look out for Flag Cancels - The flag cancellations on some old New York postcards caught Dave Hill's eye. This prompted him to look out for others and here he describes some of the examples that he has found.
   
  

• New Issues - 

  • Olympic Games - Spain marked the Centenary of her Olympic Committee

  • Samoa marks 50 years of independence and New Zealand 50 years of Friendship with that country

  • This year's Europa stamps have a Visiting theme and the stamps from Iceland are distinctive being the first to have the scenes pictured incorporated into QR codes

  • Stamps from Ascension for the centenary of the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition (Sir Ernest Shackleton's last expedition to the Antarctic) and from Australia marking the 150th Anniversary of John MacDouall Stuart's overland crossing of Australia and 200 years since the crossing of the Blue mountains by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth.

  • The earth's highest and lowest points are depicted on a joint issue from Nepal and Israel.
     

• Meeting reports on the "Travels with a Donkey", the Display given by Commander George Gibson on 14 July and the members Displays given on 11 August. 
  
  

• Book Reviews - This books cover the Authorised History of the Royal Mail, Pim & Company (stamp dealers) Victorian natal and Stanley Gibbons' latest Part 17 Catalogue (China) .

 PLUS -  Other Regular Features - 

• The President's Piece, National PS News

• Letters to the Editor

• Other Philatelic News 

• Stamp Fairs Listing - October, November and December 2012.

December 2012

• First Queen Elizabeth stamps praised in 1952 Stamp Lover - It is 60 years since Britain's first Queen Elizabeth II stamps - the 1½d and  2½d "Wildings" released on 5 December 1952 in time for that year's Christmas post  Christmas. Michael Goodman looks back at what Stamp Lover had to say about the new stamps at the time.
   

• The Lowden Forgery - The full story told for the first time - In 1913, stamp dealer Jonas Lowden bought a sackful of King Edward VII £1 stamps. Only next morning did he see that they were not quite what he expected. Trevor I Harris explains all.
     

• The previous Diamond Jubilee - The British Empire in 1897 - This Jubilee year of 2012 has prompted some looking back to the Diamond Jubilee issues of Queen Victoria. In this article however, Peter Mellor surveys the "New issues" scene across the British Empire in 1897 - from the definitives to provisionals (and the hounding of Thos U Remington, Postmaster of British East Africa and of Zanzibar for his overprints) and the fuss caused by the Canadian Jubilee set.
  
  

• Checklist of Articles in the British Philatelic Press - our twice yearly listing covers the period January - June 2012.
  
  

• New Issues - 

  • A postmaster commemorated by the Pitcairn Islands.

  • Greenland issues its new Queen Margrethe definitives and the second part of its series on the development of aviation in the country.

  • Three stamps from Canada feature the uniforms of three of its regiments going back over 150 years. 

  • The rich splendours of the Parliament building in Budapest, are shown to good effect on a new miniature sheet from Hungary. 
    
    

• Meeting reports on Nigel Gooch's display "Iran - from dictatorship to theocracy" given on 8 September 2012 and the display "GB King Edward VII varieties and curiosities"" given by Trevor Harries AIEP on 13 October.  Travels with a Donkey", the Display given by Commander George Gibson on 14 July and the members Displays given on 11 August. 
  
  

• Country Meting at Chelmsford - Details on the dozen displays featured at this successful country meeting held on Saturday 27 October 2012. 
  
  

• Book Reviews - This issues reviews range over History of Britain in 36 postage stamps, the Hindenburg mail, the 1948 London Olympic Games, the Leeward Islands and finally, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.

 PLUS -  Other Regular Features - 

• The President's Piece, National PS News

• Letters to the Editor

• Other Philatelic News 

• Stamp Fairs Listing - December 2012, January and February 2013.

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